The southern parts of China / 中国南部

During the weekend, I went with friends to the ecological island again and we rode our bicycles to another part of the island, where less tourists go and where only a few fishermen still live… Actually, I did not imagine that I would find new abandoned places after the amusement park and the lighthouse, but […]

In Zhuhai, there is a real (yes, real!) ecological island where several buildings are abandoned. Last time I went there, I found an amusement park. This time, it was also a very interesting and unexpected discovery: an abandoned lighthouse. The path to the lighthouse was half overgrown, a bit like the path to the Monkey […]

If you follow my blog, you know that I like historical ruins a lot, much more than unfinished and abandoned buildings. I also love finding buildings with an interesting architecture, especially the ones combining Chinese and Western architectural styles, such as Republican-era buildings in Beijing and Shanghai. But there are other fascinating forms of mixed-style […]

When I was in Zhuhai, I saw a strange villa compound as my bus was driving along the seaside. It really looked in a pretty bad shape: the name of the residential unit was half broken, no guard was present at the main entrance, and the colours on the walls of the villas were washed […]

I spent the week-end in Shenzhen. This city is famous for its still very popular kitsch theme parks like Window on the world or Shenzhen folk culture village. Therefore, I am very fond of the place I visited1: an abandoned waterpark from the 1980s! An early waterpark in a growing megalopolis As you might know, […]

I was a few days in Guangzhou this week and it is a very nice city for urban exploration. This time, I did not have much time so I could not go to the place I wanted to visit the most (that’s a secret for now!), but I had the chance to find a beer-themed […]

Before I start this report, in such a context, I have to state something. People often ask me how I find the time to explore so many places. « Don’t you ever work? » Well, people, the thing is, this is my hobby. When I have free time, I don’t watch TV, I don’t surf online for […]

I am now living in Zhuhai, in Guangdong province, and I spotted a place from a public bus on the very first day I arrived. It is indeed a very large building in a very lively part of the city, which is why it caught my attention. A huge empty driveway, a monumental entrance with […]

I had to go to Guangzhou for work this week, so I could not miss this opportunity to visit a derelict theme park about… Interstellar space! The park « Space Wonders » opened in 1997, following the general wave of theme parks aiming at pleasing the generation of « post-80 » children in China. The investment was very important, […]

Still traveling during the summer, I arrived in Chengdu, Sichuan, and looked for abandoned places there. The idea of an abandoned theme park suggested by Gui made my day: Chengdu has a « world-themed » abandoned amusement park and… it is totally ok to visit it! Welcome to the first « authorized » urbex site I have ever visited […]

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« Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away »

Philip K. Dick, How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later, 1978

Urban exploration in China: a fascinating escape

Have you ever wanted to travel without going too far? Looking for and finding lost places in a city is a challenge but usually worth the efforts. Entering abandoned places feels like stepping in another dimension of space and time: the urban picture one saw before is now distorted, and one accesses an alternate reality, standing there just as “true” as the “normal” one, but less visible, less accessible, less well-known... And that is the beauty of it, when the materiality of the place, its ecosystem, tells us its story without any intermediary. Some fear the danger or the dirtiness, but others can appreciate a true magic in the forbidden, forgotten, urban space.
In China, this is not a massive hobby. And yet, exploring abandoned or hidden places in Chinese cities is really stimulating: Western/Chinese style buildings from the beginning of the 20th century, socialist architecture of the 1950s, fast urbanization and gigantic ambitious planning projects turning out to be failures... I want to share some discoveries without putting the places at risk: please don't ask me for precise locations, the search is part of the fun anyway!